{"id":15436,"date":"2025-10-01T22:27:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T22:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=15436"},"modified":"2025-10-01T22:27:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T22:27:27","slug":"judge-who-hid-illegal-from-ice-gets-worst-news-of-her-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=15436","title":{"rendered":"Judge Who Hid Illegal from ICE Gets Worst News of Her Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge Hannah Dugan, who is accused of helping a criminal alien evade justice, won\u2019t be able to hide behind her black robes to escape accountability under the law.<\/p>\n

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Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dugan\u2019s motion to dismiss charges based on \u201cjudicial immunity\u201d was\u00a0rejected<\/a>\u00a0by a federal judge.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman\u00a0ruled<\/a>\u00a0that Dugan is not entitled to judicial immunity and found that the actions she is accused of fall outside the protection normally afforded to judges acting in their official capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, as the Supreme Court has stated, \u2018the official seeking absolute immunity bears the burden of showing that such immunity is justified for the function in question,\u2019\u201d Adelman wrote in the ruling. \u201cI cannot say as a matter of law that the defendant\u2019s alleged conduct falls within even this more limited version of immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dugan was indicted in April following an incident on April 18 at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Prosecutors allege that Dugan became aware of plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents waiting in the courthouse to detain a defendant in her courtroom, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a foreigner facing three misdemeanor battery charges.<\/p>\n

According to the indictment and surveillance footage reviewed by authorities, Dugan confronted the agents in a courthouse hallway, advised them they needed a judicial warrant to make the arrest, and directed them to the chief judge\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

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Prosecutors say she then conducted the matter off the record instead of holding a scheduled hearing and allowed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to exit the courtroom through a rear entrance, allegedly to avoid ICE detection.<\/p>\n

Despite these efforts, Flores-Ruiz was arrested by ICE agents later that day.<\/p>\n

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Dugan\u2019s legal team filed a motion arguing that she was acting in her judicial capacity and was therefore immune from prosecution.<\/p>\n

Her attorneys claimed that the charges against her violate the Tenth Amendment and the constitutional principle of separation of powers, asserting that the federal government does not have the authority to criminally charge a state judge for courtroom decisions made while discharging judicial duties.<\/p>\n

The defense further argued that judicial immunity extends to all judicial acts short of criminal behavior wholly unrelated to the judge\u2019s duties, such as bribery or intentional violations of constitutional rights, neither of which Dugan is accused of.<\/p>\n

Adelman rejected those arguments, writing, \u201cThere is no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered \u2018part of a judge\u2019s job.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded that the specific actions alleged\u2014interfering with a federal arrest, misleading agents about legal requirements, and facilitating a physical escape\u2014go beyond the normal scope of protected judicial activity.<\/p>\n

The ruling does not determine Dugan\u2019s guilt or innocence but allows the case to proceed. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Oct . 3 in federal court.<\/p>\n

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Both federal prosecutors and Dugan\u2019s defense attorneys have stated that they would like to begin trial proceedings before the end of the year. No trial date has yet been set.<\/p>\n

The case has drawn national attention due to its unusual nature. While tensions between local and federal authorities over immigration enforcement have become more common in recent years, it is rare for a sitting judge to face criminal charges for obstructing federal agents in the line of duty.<\/p>\n

The outcome of this case could have broader implications for how courts interpret the boundaries of judicial immunity in relation to federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Flores-Ruiz remains in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings, according to officials. The Milwaukee County District Attorney\u2019s office has not commented on whether the local criminal charges against him are still active.<\/p>\n

If convicted, she could face fines or imprisonment, though the specific penalties will depend on the outcome of trial proceedings. The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office has declined to comment further on the pending case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge Hannah Dugan, who is accused of helping a criminal alien evade justice, won\u2019t be able to hide behind her black robes to escape accountability under the law. Milwaukee County … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15438,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15436\/revisions\/15438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}